PARIS — France’s interior minister on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts since Hamas attacked Israel last weekend. President Emmanuel Macron urged French people not to allow the war in the Mideast to erupt into tensions at home.
Before Macron spoke in a televised address to the nation about the Mideast conflict, Paris police used tear gas and a water cannons to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who defied a ban and demonstrated against the Israeli government.
“Let us not bring ideological adventures here (to France) by imitation or by projection. Let us not add national fractures ... to international fractures,” Macron pleaded. “Let us stay united.”
With several French- Israeli citizens believed held hostage by Hamas, Macron pledged that France would protect its Jewish citizens and be “ruthless toward all those who bear hate,” and noted concerns about hostility toward France’s Muslims too. France is estimated to have the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., and the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
Macron said 13 French citizens in Israel have been killed in the current fighting, with 17 missing, many believed held hostage by Hamas. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation Thursday into the killings and suspected kidnappings.
The French government has reported 24 arrests for more than 100 antisemitic acts in France since Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, including verbal abuse, people caught with knives near Jewish schools and synagogues, and a drone equipped with a camera spotted over a Jewish cultural center. More than 2,000 cases of antisemitic speech have been reported to an online watchdog force.
Pro-Palestinian associations decried the move. The National Collective for a Fair and Lasting Peace between Palestinians and Israelis said it “denounces this threat to freedom of expression’’ and pledged to continue holding actions to support the Palestinian people.
Denouncing Hamas as a terrorist group, Macron called for peace efforts that would ensure Israel’s security and a Palestinian state.
“Those who confuse the Palestinian cause with justifying terrorism are committing a moral, political and strategic error,” he said.
Russian journalist ill: French prosecutors are investigating a suspected poisoning Thursday of a Russian journalist who fled after denouncing the war in Ukraine on live TV.
Marina Ovsyannikova was hospitalized after falling ill as she left her Paris apartment and said she suspected she was poisoned, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
Ovsyannikova, who worked at Russian state television Channel One, drew international attention in March 2022 after appearing behind the anchor of an evening news broadcast with a sign that said, “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.”
NATO nuclear drill: NATO will hold a major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance’s chief said Thursday, an announcement that came after Russia warned it would pull out of a global nuclear test ban agreement.
NATO’s “Steadfast Noon” exercise is held annually and runs for about a week. It involves fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads but does not involve live bombs.
“This is a routine training event that happens every October,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. “This year, the training will take place over Italy, Croatia and the Mediterranean Sea.”
The bulk of the training is held at least 600 miles from Russia’s borders.
Stoltenberg said Russia’s war on Ukraine is a reminder of the important role that NATO’s nuclear weapons play in deterring aggression.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions, although it has never fully entered into force. It was signed by the Russian and U.S. presidents but was never ratified by the United States.
On Tuesday, a top Russian diplomat said that Moscow would pull out of the treaty to put itself on par with the United States but would only resume nuclear tests if Washington does it first.
Stoltenberg said the NATO allies have no plans to start testing again. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying “to use this nuclear rhetoric to prevent NATO allies from supporting Ukraine, but he will not succeed, because again it is in our security interest that Ukraine prevails.”
Minnesota officers shot: Five drug task force officers were shot and wounded Thursday while serving a search warrant near the Minnesota city of Princeton and a 64-year-old suspect was arrested, authorities said. The officers’ injuries were not life-threatening, an official said.
Conspiracy theories: Mexico’s president unleashed a broad spate of conspiracy theories Thursday, arguing that the 1994 assassination of a Mexico presidential candidate was a government- sponsored killing.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not provide any specific evidence for the accusation of state involvement in the killing of ruling party candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, but he did say he had met with Colosio just days before he died, purportedly at the hands of a lone gunman.
López Obrador also claimed, without offering any evidence, that the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was also a “state crime.”
He also said the U.S. arrest of former Mexican defense secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos in 2020 was part of a Drug Enforcement Administration plot to weaken Mexico’s armed forces and allow U.S. agents free rein in Mexico.
Cienfuegos was arrested at a Los Angeles airport on drug charges. Mexico demanded Cienfuegos’ release, reportedly threatening to expel U.S. agents unless he was returned. The United States dropped the charges and returned him. Mexico quickly absolved Cienfuegos of any wrongdoing and on Wednesday awarded him a medal.
Church in question: Japan’s government said Thursday it would ask a court to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s 2022 assassination raised questions about its fundraising and recruitment tactics.
Education Minister Masahito Moriyama said the ministry proposed seeking the revocation after interviewing more than 170 people allegedly harmed by the fundraising tactics and other problems. The church failed to respond to dozens of questions during the seven inquiries, he said.
The Japan branch of the church, which calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, condemned the move.
The Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon obtained legal status as a religious organization in Japan in 1968.